Rust
by Alan Spencer
Summary: Louise fails the summoning ritual but, rather that live disgraced, she seeks a life for herself. She finds only a hellish purgatory, the Place Of Silent Spirits: Silent Hill.
1. Pulsating Ambiance

**Rust**

**Chapter 1: **_Pulsating Ambiance_

Louise slowly opened her eyes, coming off a dream where she was the number one mage in the academy in both practical and theoretical nearly immediately. She stared at the white ceiling of her room blankly, considering, like pretty much every morning, just staying in bed and make up some excuse for when the teachers would came knocking. Is not like she needed the classes to stay on the top spot in the academical part. She would go hoping she would cast a functional spell for once, it was the only reason she continued to go all these years, but, uncomfortable questions about her own ability aside, that couldn´t happen because the teachers, except Mister Colbert, where not there to help. They were all just looking down at her, much like her classmates. If she could make herself look convincingly sick, she do it in a heartbeat.

Her thoughts drifted back to Colbert. One time, in her first year in this academy, she had fell sick and had to stay in bed for a week. During that time, Colbert had took the time to bring her homework and extensive notes writing by him of each class that she missed. He also kept her company, and looked genuinely worried, even though it was not really much. Just a particularly bad cold. That made her felt like she mattered, like Cattleya always had made her felt since she was little. She imagined his worried gaze. Damn.

Louise threw the covers off of her, got out of the bed and got to the closet, taking off her nightgown on the way. She opened it and grabbed one of her spare uniforms and a pair of panties. She dressed herself as fast as she could, for top to bottom. She wasted a few minutes looking for her cloak and wand, then got out of the room and towards the first class of the day, Water Magic, hoping to get in time or, at least, not too late. A few minutes later she started worrying. Even though she felt kind of stupid about it, she hadn´t not see anybody yet or heard anything but the wind. It was like she was the only person in this academy. Without realizing it, her pace speed up.

A thundering crash, somewhere close behind her. She held back a scream, and froze in place. Move. She had to move. There was someone o-or something just behind her, something as horribly as a vampire or even an elf, so couldn´t stand here in place like an idiot. Silly things like how could such beast have gotten here, or for what reason, where unimportant. The danger felt as real as the ground beneath her feet.

She swallowed heavily; there was a click in her throat. Another crash, closer to her. Shit, shit, fucking shit. She ran for her life as fast as she could, gland for once for her mother´s training. She didn´t heard anything more, but she didn´t stop or drop her pace at all, for if she did, it could get her. Only dimly aware of it, she got out the dormitories, entered the Water Tower and she found herself at the door of her classroom. Only then did she realized she was crying. Louise breathed in and out, trying to steady her breathing.

There had be nothing behind her. Really, she had been a scaredy-cat since that day, but this was a bit much. It was not rare at all that she didn´t heard anything. She was late, so everybody was already at their designated classrooms and she couldn´t heard everything from the dormitory dorms anyway. Sure, she still couldn´t heard anything, but is not like the teachers talked continuously and the students rarely raised a ruckus. Nothing strange was happening. _Nothing_.

She brushed the tears from her eyes with the back of her hands, scolded her expression into her best imitation of her mother, and pushed the door opened.

"Sorry, I am la..." Her words died in her throat; the room was completely empty. Ah, no. No. This is not real. Not real. Not real. She hid her face between her hands, breathing heavily, her tears quietly flowing again. It was just a joke, it had to be. Sooner or latter, they would appear behind the door and laugh about how stupid the Zero was and everything would be normal again. Or below the desks. She had not difficulty believing the teacher was on this, too. She started towards the nearest seat, somehow holding on to a shaky smile and looked down. There wasn´t anybody.

"Is not funny, guys." She blurted out, nervously. "Enough already."

When her voice faded, there was only silence. Her hands started shaking and, soon, her entire body was trembling. She fell to her knees, holding her face within her hands and breathing heavily. Not real. Calm down, calm down. A nightmare. Surely, this mess was only a nightmare. She had to wake up, now. Now.

Louise heard something strange and low, so low it was barely audible. She stiffened, blushing for embarrassment and anger, and listened. A human voice, that sound was a human´s voice. She didn´t recognize the person, whoever he was, but she didn´t care. She didn´t even care about the new taunts she would have to heard now. The important thing was that this was over. She stood up, shakily, trying to work out the words. All the effort she was putting in to this was just a bitter reminder that anybody else, someone not broken, wouldn´t have had any problems with this. They could just have casted some spell to hear better.

"In and out, up and down, what is real, what is real, oh, I don´t know..." She nervously licked her lips, and wondered if she had be wrong, if this wasn´t a dream after all. Those words... those words would only be sung by someone crazy. She looked around the room, sweat running down her face like tears. There was not good place to hide. Her gaze went from the blackboard to one of her pockets, the tip of her wand sticking out from it. She breathed heavily. She could do this, there was nothing wrong with it. Just blow that person out, and everything would go back to normal. Slowly, she reached for her wand.

(_clockwork doesn´t bleed_)

A stray, strange though went through her head. She soon dismissed it, for it didn´t have meaning or relevance for her. She heard an uneven, irritating noise, like nails scratching the blackboard except several times as louder. A shadow passed through the windows. She couldn´t still see him clearly, but he was tall, really tall, the tallest person she had ever seen. And he was holding something that looked like a sword. Oh, shit. Shit. Was this really a smart idea? She didn´t know what was happening but fact was that she hand´ heard anybody else and that man, if he was a man, carried some kind of weapon. And if he had killed everybody, as ridiculous as it sounded, then what could she do against him? Nothing. Nothing at all.

Louise leaped beneath a desk, crouched, hands holding her head. There was a loud sound of impact, and a thundering crash, then, footsteps. She didn´t dare to peek, but her mind conjured a terrifying image of the door, broken in half simply by his fists. Footsteps, scratching, hard groans that sounded almost like he was in pain. She held her breath, and prayed in her head to Founder Brimir. Closer, the footsteps were getting closer. Scratching, on the row of desks she had hid beneath. Her hands shot up to grab her wand, but it was too late. A cold, clammy hand wrapped around her ankle and lifted her like she weighted nothing, making her wand fall to the ground. That was when she got her first good look at that thing.

She had be mistaken. The constantly twitching creature, whatever it actually was, was clearly female. Her large, blood soaked robe didn´t manage to hide the swell of her breasts. She had no eyes, her mouth was too large, her crooked teeth looked as sharp ask knifes, and her skin could only loosely be classified as such. It was leathery, with crude stitches all over, too unnatural looking. She casually carried around with one hand something bloody and... strange. It took her a moment to realize it was a corpse.

Louise stared. The limbs were all twisted completely, and it lacked a head but yes, it was the corpse of one of her classmates. Some girl, which was now completely unrecognizable. How could this have happened so fast? It was ridiculous. She shook her head, and tried to reach for her wand. Her fingers brushed against it, then the creature slammed her down against the desk. She gasped in pain on impact, and spat out blood. The desk gave away under her, breaking neatly in two. She lay in the splintered remains of the desk and looked up at that thing, dazed, her head throbbing, only vaguely aware of the cut there and the warm blood flowing through it. The thing grabbed her by the shoulders. She tried to escape its grasp, but it was no use. Its head went down, and its teeth dug into her neck.

She screamed.


	2. Hell Frozen Rain

**Chapter 2: **_Hell Frozen Rain_

Louise opened her eyes wide, breathing heavily. Her nightgown was pretty much see through, and stuck to her body due to extreme sweating. She put a hand over her left breast, then tried to listen. Her heart was beating out of control, almost painfully. She imagined how her mother would react to such a failure of self discipline, and, rather that helping her, just made it speed up even more. Should have known, damn it.

She breathed in, out, in, out, until her breathing went back to normal. Alright. Her chest burned, and she felt like she had jumped head first in a river, but progress was progress. She took the covers off her, sat up on the bed, shrugged out of the damp nightgown and set it aside. She got out the bed, walked to the closet, opened it and dressed herself without hurry. Her fingers shook so much that each button of her shirt took a few tries, and, wrapping the cloak around her neck-a normally easy easy, everyday task- became a real chore, but she did it, and walked to the door. Her hand stopped halfway to the knob. She thought about that horrible nightmare, that monster of sharp teeth. It started trembling. She shook her head, steeled her expression and got out of the room, closing the door behind her.

From the corridor, she could hear the hustle and bustle of her classmates, talking between themselves while walking to their classes. She was not alone. It was to be expected-nightmares were only nightmares, after all- but she still let out a sigh of relief. Her relief, though, was short lived. Today was the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual. She had a lot stacked against her, and, if she failed, everything she had worked for so many years would go down the drain. Mother would throw her aside to Wardes, and she would forever be a laughing stock. The Zero. Karin The Heavy Wind´s useless daughter, to complete the lovely trio of a haughty bitch no prospective husband could stand and the weak and sickly child that couldn´t even cast a few spells in quick succession without spitting out blood even on her better days, and had died not too long ago like everybody expected. In a way, even her family name depended on this day. She walked on, holding her head high, her strides measured and confident.

This was going to work.

It had to.

* * *

It started raining soon, lightly at first, but it only got worse from there on. By the time the classes were finished and all second year students had be gathered in the field for the Summoning, it was a veritable downpour, leaving them all soaked to the bone. Still, today was the day and they wouldn´t allow them to wait for the rain to pass or leave it for tomorrow. Not for any special reason, mind you. Just tradition.

She huddled on her raincoat, trying to get as much warm as she could-which was not much. She watched, growing increasingly nervous, as classmate after classmate stepped up and summoned a familiar-most of them in the first try- then went to back of the line to wait for the rest to finish. Just one or two had to try it twice, and she had watched nearly all of the second years do the summoning. It was depressing. She fully expected, if she could do it at all, to have be to try it many times, and even with those low expectations the bar had been set rather high. Her lips pursed into a tight line.

It didn´t matter. She was going to manage it, even if she had to try it ten times. As long as she got her familiar, they wouldn´t be able to laugh at her anymore. She just wished that her surname started with A, instead of a V, because the wanting was killing her. The line dwindled down rather quickly, considering the numbers of students, but to her it was just too damn slow. Finally, she heard Professor Colbert calling up to her.

"Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, step up." she stepped to the circle drawn on the grass, ignoring the snide comments and giggles behind her, took off her wand and prepared herself. She knew the necessary steps, the theory-she was better than her classmates in nearly every way. There was no reason for her to fail; there never had been. It didn´t matter if she didn't achieve another spell in her life. If she could do this one, then everything would be alright. This long darkness would end, forever. She would no longer be nothing but Louise The Zero.

"Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, heed my summoning and bright for my familiar!" The execution was flawless; everybody could see that. She waited, as she felt the magical power leave her in waves, for some kind of result. Even a cat would do. The portal didn´t appear, much less a familiar. Nor even an explosion. She waited, fidgeting more and more, but soon was forced to acknowledge that her first attempt was a resounding failure.

"Don´t worry." Colbert said, low enough that the others didn´t hear. "Focus. Forget about them, and just do it."

Louise breathed deeply, and raised her wand again. That´s right. She was obviously a noble. A noble capable only of making explosions, yes, but if you gave a commoner a wand not even that would happen. So this was going to be fine.

"I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, in the name of the Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers, follow my fate, summon a familiar!" Nothing, again. Nothing. Her classmates laughed, pointed, insulting her like always, but she didn´t respond. Just gritted her teeth. Shit, shit. This was not supposed to go like this. This...

"Louise." she heard Colbert´s soft voice, behind the voices of her classmates. "Calm down. We can do this as many times as you need. The important thing is not how much times it took you, but that you managed it. Okay? Okay."

She did it, again and again, without a result, blocking out everything around her. She quickly lost count of her failures. Soon, she felt lightheaded, and once had to hold her bile down. Black spots swam around her vision. Her hands were shaking slightly.

"I... My servant that exists somewhere in this vast universe." she heard muttering like 'what is that chant?' or 'weird, to be expected from the Zero'. She ignored them, and carried on. "My divine, beautiful, wise and powerful servant, heed my call. I wish from the very bottom of my heart, add to my guidance and appear!"

An explosion shook the summoning grounds, covering everything around her with a cloud of dust. She breathed it, and coughed hard, almost painfully. An image, gray and blurry, appeared in her mind. Maybe a town, but she couldn´t be sure. She realized, with a sudden sense of unreality, that she could not longer fell her own body or see anything else. Then, she gasped, and it was over, she was on her knees, the smoke already dissipating. There was nothing. She had failed. The wand slipped from her grasp, but she couldn´t muster the effort to care about it. She dropped to her knees. Footsteps, grass shuffling.

"Louise." Colbert said, then stopped, and put a hand on her shoulder. He was trying to comfort her, she knew that, but it didn´t help matters at all. It just made her feel worse.

"No." she muttered, painfully aware that she was close to tears. "No."

"Louise..." he repeated, unease clearly visible. "You have been doing this... to be honest, I didn´t know, lost count, but it was definitively more that ten times. If you... If you go on like this..."

Colbert sounded almost desperate and, maybe, it was true. She figured he never had to deal with watching the future of one his students crumble in just one day. She breathed in, and out. Tried to blink away her tears. Okay, so it was over. Everything that mattered was over. But, at the very least, she still had her pride. A year of constant put downs and vitriol had never made her cry, not where anybody would see her, and she wanted to leave the academy like that. She put her hand in the top of his.

"It´s okay." she whispered, even though it was not okay at all. "I am fine." She wiped her eyes with the back of her hands as discreetly as possible, and stood up. "I can go alone."

"No." he said. "I will go with you. Just... go the to the end of the line, and wait. Okay?"

Louise nodded meekly, and started to walk. To her surprise, the insults were at minority in the crowd. Most of them looked at her with pity, even Kirche. She held her head higher, like she had summoned, not failed in front of the whole school, and carried on. She put her back against the wall, crossed her arms beneath her chest, and waited.

* * *

When the summoning was over, Colbert led her out of the field and into the Headmaster´s office. Osmond was alone, sitting on his desk and filling out some papers diligently. He perked out when he heard the door opening.

"Mister Colbert, as it finished..." Confusion spread across his face upon seeing her, just behind the professor. "Miss Vallière?"

She made her way through the office, and sat down in one the seats right in front of the Headmaster, her hands clenched into fists on her lap. She didn´t say anything. There was nothing to be said. Just moments after, his expression turned serious.

"So, she..."

"Yes, Headmaster Osmond." Colbert said. "She has failed the Summoning Ritual, retrying until the point that I deemed it too dangerous for her to go on."

"Ah, I see." He said, and steepled his fingers. "This is unfortunate. Doubly so, because Miss Valliere is obviously a mage, even if she has only managed to produce explosions. I had hoped... well, you know. " He turned to her. "I will send a letter to your household, explaining the situation. You will repeat the year, and be allowed to try the Summoning Ritual once more when the time comes."

"No. I can´t." Louise said. Osmond raised both eyebrows. "I can´t. Mother... Mother told me that she would only allow me to remain at the academy if I managed to succeed with the Summoning Ritual, and I didn´t."

It felt odd to ask to be expelled, but it wasn´t. No matter how much all of it meant to her, she knew she wouldn´t ever dare to defy her mother.

"Well... I don´t really like it, but I can´t do anything about it." he sighed. "Very well. I will not insist to Karin that she should allow you to stay in the academy. You can go now. The carriage will take a few days to come, but I recommend that you pack your things as soon as possible."

"Yes, Headmaster." Louise looked behind her, for a moment. Colbert seemed deflated, but he didn´t raise a single protest. She had told him about the conditions her mother had put, back when she had fell sick on her first year here. At first, she had thought it was embarrassing, but, even so, it was good that she had told him then. He had plenty of time to come to grips with the possibility. Him causing a scene in her name was the last thing she needed now. She stood up. "Goodbye, Headmaster. Goodbye, Professor Colbert."

Then, she walked away.

"Goodbye." Osmond said.

"Goodbye, Louise." Colbert said.

She reached the door, opened it, stepped outside and closed it lightly, just like a proper noble was supposed to do. Even though she wanted to slam it.

* * *

It didn´t take long for her to pack her things. Apart for her school uniforms, she only had a few dresses, novels she had brought from her home and her wand. All in all, everything fit into one bag. When she finished, she laid down on the bed. She tried to sleep, but after an hour of turning and turning, she gave up and just stared at the ceiling. This was the end of it. After this, there would be both mother and her sister looking down at her, the wedding, always standing behind Wardes with a false smile and leading a false life, birthing children she could never care about and behind referred to only as the wife of the Captain of The Griffin Knights, not as Louise or even The Zero, as if, by saying `Yes´ at the chapel, she had ceased to exist.

She only saw unhappiness in her future.

Louise closed her eyes, feeling the sting of tears. No. No. Enough crying. She was a noble of the Vallière family. She was steel. Steel may bend, but never break. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and managed to hold back her tears. She had much practice at it. There was a knock at the door. She frowned. She didn´t what to see Colbert right now. Or anybody else, really.

"Go away!"

"Don´t be like that, Louise." she stiffened. It was Kirche´s voice. Damn, that fucking whore. She had already lost. There was no need to come here to humiliate her further. "Open up, please."

"Why? So you can laugh about my failure to my face? Like hell I'll open! Go away!"

"Louise, I..." she didn´t have the right to talk in such a shocked, hurt voice. They were not friends, they had never been. The opposite, really. She was always mocking her. She was the one who first called her The Zero. If she too had been in the other side of the door, she would have punched her. "Okay, okay, but heard me out. I... I am sorry, alright?"

"You are sorry?" Louise said, not believing that she had heard right. She then laughed, almost hysterically, until she ran out of breath. "Are you kidding me? Do you know what a year of constant mocking does to you? When you are hated, picked on, spit on, and no one ever does a damn thing? Do you?"

"Louise..."

"Ever since we first met, you have done nothing but laugh at me, made my life even worse, and now you think you can just turn around and say you are sorry? Well, sorry doesn´t cut it. It doesn´t fucking cut it, alright? Just die already, you stupid cow!"

"I... I never... I.."

"Leave me alone!" she picked up her bag, and threw it at the door. "Leave me alone!"

There was silence, but Louise would still heard Kirche´s breathing. Then, she heard her footsteps going away. Soon, they too faded from her hearing.

* * *

Night had fallen. By now, Osmond´s letter should have already reached her mother´s hands. Would she be surprised? No, probably not. She already didn´t have an ounce of faith in her. She only let her go to the academy because that had been, essentially, Cattleya´s last request. Hell, she wouldn´t be surprised if mother had already prepared all the necessary things even before she sent her to the Academy. That would be just like her.

She clenched her fists, imagining her mother when she came back home. Not a welcome back, or a hug. Just a dry: _go, the marriage ceremony is already prepared. Show me_ _that at least you are worth for something._ She sat up, got out of bed, walked to the window, opened it and stuck her head out. The night wind hit her face, blew back her hair. She looked at the distant horizon, at the vague shape of the hills, not really thinking about anything.

Louise then closed the window, turned and clapped twice. The lamp came to life, bringing some illumination into the room. She grabbed her bag, which had been against the door since that time, put it on the bed, opened it and changed into her school uniform. Changing into a dress would have been better- she was too easily recognizable this way- but it would have been troublesome to run in any of them. She grabbed her wand, put it into her pocket and walked out of the room and down the tower. Some part of her mind screamed _what are you doing?_ She almost turned back, almost. Because she knew there was no future for her, so running away didn´t matter and if didn´t do it today, she couldn´t have the guts to do it tomorrow, or the next day, or the after that.

She had expected to see at least one professor on night shift, but when she reached the gates she still had not seen a single one. The safest academy in all of Halkagenia, uh? What bullshit. But well, all the better for her. She had already thought of an escape route, of course, but she hesitated. No. Too extreme. Better do it only if there was no other way. She looked around for an exit, any kind of exit, but found none, sighed, took off her wand and pointed in at the gates.

"Fireball." she whispered, and then there was an explosion. It tore the gates apart, reducing them to broken pieces that almost seemed to form a trail to the forest. She breathed deeply, once, and broke into a run, praying that she would be fast enough.


	3. Ordinary Vanity

**Chapter 3: **_Ordinary Vanity_

Louise ran towards the forest, stepping over the splintered and burned pieces of wood of the broken gates, as the academy came to life behind her. Lights appeared behind the windows, and there were panicked voices raising. Hopefully, with all this commotion it would take some time before they found out she was gone. She didn´t look back again, and disappeared between the trees. It was dangerous to run in a darkness illuminated only by the light of the two moons, but she didn´t allow herself to stop her pace. Getting caught here would end everything.

There was a lot of under-brush, so she had to barrel through it, no minding the thorns digging violently into her skin and sometimes drawing blood. Faster, faster. She had to go faster. She went for a good while, god knows how long, tripped on something hard, staggered, waver her arms in a doomed attempt to kept her balance, and fell. Thorns and rocks dug into her side, making her cry out in pain. Her vision blurred with tears, for the pain but mostly for the surprise. She blinked them back, staring at the night sky beyond the tallest of the tress, breathing fast, her entire body throbbing.

_Shit, shit, fucking shit._

She stood up and started walking forward again, for lack of a direction, but a little bit slower this time. What would she do? She had not real experience. Mother had be hard on her with physical and magical training, sure, but that was not going to help her live when she may as well be a commoner now. She was just planning to find an empty place for the night, and find a job with a decent pay if she wouldn´t be capable of finding a place that she would use indefinitely. Sure, sure, it was all below her, a noble of the Valliére family, but so what? She didn´t have anything, so nothing mattered anymore. She would be content just to die as herself.

_Cattleya_, she thought. Before her sudden, violet death, her big sister had taught her all sorts of things about her beloved animals-what they liked, how to take care of them- so, maybe, she would work an animal shop. It would remind her of her death constantly, but then again, is not like she wouldn´t ever forget about it even without that job. Every little thing reminded her of Cattleya, her corpse laying in that cold bed, damp with her blood.

A wave of nausea hit her. She bended over, a hand on her stomach, and tried to hold her bile down. It was futile. She violently retched all over the ground, until she had not more to throw out, and just gasped. She closed her eyes, sweat running down her face like tears, and tried to get herself back under control. She still felt a little sick to her stomach, but not much, so she opened her eyes again. On the disgusting pile of vomit, there was blood. Her blood. The world swayed twice right before her eyes.

"I am okay." She said to the forest, because the sound of her whisperings would have been a little... unsettling. "Everything is just fine."

She steadied herself, and took a step forward, and another and another. She was steel. Steel may bend, but never break. Never ever.

So this was going to be alright.

* * *

Louise walked onwards, the light of the moons illuminating her path waning with the passing time. Cold. She really should have grabbed a jacket before going. And boots, and gloves. Being in a forest in the middle of a particularly windy night with a thin shirt and such a short skirt was an outright torture. She had to find a place to sleep, quickly. A warm place.

Of course, she should also have reached La Rochelle by now, so she had not though doing any of that. It was farther that she thought. The other answer, obvious and uncomfortable, was swiftly pushed aside. She had grow used to it during most of her walk. Yeah, it was just farther that she though. She hadn´t lost her bearings. No, not at all.

She heard only the song of the wind on the pines, the far off squeak of a jay and a woodpecker digging into a hollow tree, but nothing human. She huddled, growing increasingly nervous despite herself and opened the door to her favorite fantasy: _I am home, back home. And there is this woman sitting on the porch. She has long, flowing, soft looking pink air and when she turns around... oh I can´t believe it but is true, the woman is Cattleya, its a mystery_ _how she is not dead, but is her. She smiles-that big, friendly smile I like so much- and asks me how its going, little Louise._

She thought about how they would talk, letting the dark trek through the forest with not end in sight go far away from her, letting the disquieting sounds all around her fade, lost in her own world with a big stupid smile on her face.

* * *

By the time dawn was already approaching, she was forced to admit she had lost her bearings. She didn´t know how that could happen, because the way to La Rochelle was straight and she had be going straight all the way, but things like that didn´t matter now. Retracing her steps would only end up in her getting more loss, and, besides, any destination was fine.

She had be walking through thick fog for a while, and as she walked it only seemed to get thicker. She ascended a small hill, and looked down, trying to place her surroundings. She only saw the vague shape of a town near her, near swallowed up by the fog. Oh, well. That was a good place as any, even though she had not idea where she was. She would just ask the habitats, anyway.

She walked down the hill, and through the road. Soon enough, she saw a sign with writing that she wouldn´t read. Strange. She was at least familiar with every other language know to Halkegenia; she should be able to read pretty much everything. It didn´t look like Elvish, either. At least, not as far as her people knew about it. The thought that there was an Elvish settlement close to the academy made her shiver, but it was just pretty much impossible in every way. It was most likely that the sign was pure gibberish, or some kind of code, rather than something like that. It was the kind of thing that would spill out for the people who had nothing better to do that weave conspiracy theories. So she continued down the path, and found herself in someplace with an overlooking view of a lake and, behind it, the town. There were some stairs leading further down, and another road to the left. The whole place didn´t look like anything she had ever saw.

Louise took the road and suddenly froze. There were... things, on the road, shaped like some sort of cube, but stretched and with circular things under it. She tensed, reached for her wand, then stopped. No, what was she thinking? Whatever they were, those things were definitively not animals. If they had been, they would have noticed her already. Now that she looked more thoroughly at them, she noticed that their shape was kind of like a carriage. Founder only knows how they were supposed to work without horses, but it was the most likely explanation. So, she put her hand down. The only question was, who would create such things? It... suddenly, a person ran through the fog.

_That shadow just now..._

It gave her quite a scare. She considered calling up to the person, but quickly dismissed the idea. Leaving aside if it was a good idea or not, that person was probably already too far away too heard her. And it was definitively a bad idea. Whatever this place was, it didn´t show up in any map; those carriage things, no matter how she looked at them, were far too strange; and the writing of that sign still made her doubt. It would be better to go away, warn the authorities anonymously and look for a better place to stay. She turned away... And that was when a hand grasped her knee.

Louise drew her breath in raggedly, her back straightening, her eyes going wide and round. She looked down, and saw a monster. It was ragged, twitching and bleeding. Where his eyes should be there was only empty sockets. It had wounds all over its body, some deep enough to show the bone beneath its skin. Its lips were parted, leaving in view that it had not teeth, just a snakelike tongue. She screamed mindlessly into the mist covered, empty sky. Her screams were shrill and pierced. Only when the monster moved, and grabbed her knee with his other had, did she move. She raised her free leg, and kicked it in the head. It didn´t budge an inch. She kicked it again, mindlessly. The monster tugged her, and she fell to the ground on her knees.

"Get away! Get away from me!" she reached for her wand, hands shaking, as the monster moved closer to her, making wet, smacking noises with his tongue, trying to kept it distance by kicking it away. She grasped the wand, and jammed it through one of his empty sockets.

The monster went limp, for a moment, then started trashing around, letting out a high pitched wails. Screaming, she pushed the wand until its tip protruded out of the other side of its skull, dripping with warm blood. It was still trashing, its skin ripping even more. Blood flew in the air. Its brain was hanging out. The monster went limp. She let of the wand, and crawled back without taking her eyes off from the body. She shakily stood up.

_Is... Is it dead? God, what was that thing? _Looking into its corpse, Louise thought back to her nightmare-just a day ago, but it seemed so far away. Most of the details were already hazy, but she remembered seeing that monster from the first time, face to face, like she had experienced it for real. That bloodstained robe, its crudely stitched skin. Those two monster looked... similar.

Her head spun twice, and she feel on her back. Black spots swam on her vision. She tried to kept her eyes open, but she wouldn´t even manage to think straight. She heard footsteps rapidly approaching.

Then darkness.

* * *

Louise slowly opened her eyes, feeling dizzy, with the lethargic slowness of dreams. She immediately noticed that she didn´t have her wand on her person, but it took her a moment more to notice that she was not longer on the streets. She looked around. There were desks scattered all along the rusted and stained floor, a few of them with some food and drinks on the top. The windows were all closed. The only illumination came from the skylight.

She froze. There was something there, leaning against one of the windows. Was it one of these monsters? If so, why was she not dead yet? It moved below the light of the skylight, and she saw that it was a man, not a monster, and not only that. He was garbed in full plate armor, and had a wand-sword in one of his hands. A knight. She let herself relax.

"Oh, so you are awake already." he said. Its voice was a rich and deep baritone, suiting what she imagined real knights would be like. "Thank the Founder. I didn´t see any wound, but... Anyway, my name is Alfred Wilhelm De Bernays. Yours? And what are you doing here?"

"I..." she hesitated; she was no sure if he had grabbed her wand from that monster´s corpse, and that would change everything. Lying to him, in that case, would just serve to make him distrust her and saying that she was from a different noble family was not an option. Oh, well. "I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. And... well, I just stumbled into this town. I... I don´t even know where we are. What´s a knight like you doing near here, anyway?"

"Well." he pursed his lips into a thin line. "I suppose I would tell you. Doesn´t really matter. I am here searching for a missing child. She went missing around here. I found this town, got inside planning to ask around, but I only found that the whole town had been run over by those monsters. And if she is really here, then..."

"It doesn´t look good."

"No, it doesn´t." he said. It seemed like getting those words out had taken some effort. "I just have to hope... But don´t worry, child. I help you get out of here. Just warn the Palace. Tell them I told you to do it, if you have to. Le..."

"I-I can´t go back."

"Listen." Alfred snapped. "I heard about your magical difficulties, and that´s a shame. More so that a child of your age has be kicked out of her own family, but get over yourself. This is our country we are talking about here. What do you think would happen if those monsters attacked without anybody expecting them? It would be bad. Hell, not only Tristania but Halkagenia as we know it is in danger. You have to go, and I have to find that little girl."

"Let me help you." she wouldn´t believe what she had said, but she said it. It was a solid idea, though. And, well, okay, earlier had be a scary experience but she had only got in danger because she allowed that monster to get close enough that she wouldn´t cast a spell without endangering herself... or worse. So this was going to be fine.

"What?"

"Just..." Just that it would be a great opportunity redeem herself, not only for her failure but also for having escaped the academy like that. But of course, she wouldn´t say that. "What do you think would happen if I went to tell the Palace? Nothing, they wouldn´t take me seriously. I am Valliere, yes, but I am just a child. You have to tell them, b-but going alone in this place would be dangerous. If you have an extra pairs of eyes and hands along for the ride, you have more chances of surviving and finding that girl, right?"

"But..."

"I can be useful. I may not have casted anything but an explosion in my life, but explosions would be useful in this situation, right? Even if its just to warn you of the approach of a monster, you should..."

"Alright, alright. I get it. You can come with me." Louise smiled. "Don´t. Just don´t. This is not the time to pat yourself on that back. But still, what you said is true. I don´t need you, don´t mistake me, but you would be helpful. So, here is the first lesson. Use magic only when you haven´t got any choice.

"Uh?"

"Explosions make too much noise, child. Use this." he raised one hand, and threw something at it. She hastily caught it in the air with both hands. A... some sort of bat made of steel, or something. "I cut this out of some contraction I found on this town. I planned to use it if I ever lost my wand, but, well, you can use it instead."

"I..." she had expected to fight those monsters at a safe distance, not this. If this went the way she wanted it to go, she would show her mother that she had some worth, get a post in the military and the marriage would be postponed again, but one thing was fighting for her country against other humans-something that her mother had prepared her for since birth- and another were... those things. Still, she nodded. She wouldn´t back down. "I understand."

"Good." he said. Louise stood up, and followed him to the doors of the inn. He grabbed the knob, turned it and pushed the door with his hand. It slowly creaked open. They stepped outside.

**Author´s Notes**

**The monster that appears in this chapter in not a canon one, but of my own creation. None of the monsters will be taken from canon, since, well, it wouldn´t be a Silent Hill story otherwise. **

**Also, don´t expect me to update this twice a week again. Is just not feasible.**


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